December 20, 2013

Let
me take this opportunity to wish each of you and your dear family a happy and
joyous Christmas. I would also like to wish you a healthy, peaceful and a
successful New Year!

At
this time of the year, please also take a moment from your busy daily work and
social life to remember and pray for our deceased brother knights and members
of their families who have passed away during the past 12 months and for our
knights who are seeking new opportunities in the work place.

On
a separate note, what is of particular interest to you and what you would like
to do by way of giving back to the community; please reach out to the Deputy GK
Patrick Bajcar and/or me and let us know which particular area of the council
you would like to be a participant and volunteer.

We
need to increase member participation in our monthly general meetings and my
goal is to see the percentage increase by 20%. I believe we are on the right
track in trying to achieve this mark and I am encouraged by your participation
in the past few meetings of the new fraternal year and most importantly when we
touched the 100 mark at the November 19 Fraternal Activity Night (FAN).

Finally,
thank you to the Executive Members and Directors for all your good work since
assuming office in July. As we enter the New Year and second half of our
Fraternal Year, I believe we are well positioned to make this yet another
successful year for our council.

November 29, 2013

Christmas is the
most wonderful time of the year. However, in today’s world Christmas is
commercialized and the day has been secularized. The question we ask is: Are we
partly to blame for this commercialization and secularization? Haven’t we have
supported it in some form or another? We have taken our children to the mall
and have taken pictures with Santa. We have put gifts in the stocking and told
our Children they were gifts from Santa. We have made Santa Claus more popular than
Jesus. We have encouraged songs about Snow man, Santa Claus, Reindeer and what
have you….We have inadvertently helped, those that don’t want Christ, to remove
Him out of Christmas. But it’s never too late.

If millions of Christians put their heart and
mind to it, they can surely bring back Christ into Christmas.

But what does
keeping Christ in Christmas mean? The number one way to keep
Jesus Christ in your Christmas celebrations is to have him present in your
daily life and make Him the centre of your life. Keeping Christ in Christmas is
more about the way you live your life than the things you say, such as
"Merry Christmas" versus "Happy Holidays."

Let us do things
differently this year. There are simple ways to keep Christ the central
focus of your life this Christmas season. Give God a special gift that is just
from you. Let this gift be something personal that no one else needs to know
about, and let it involve a sacrifice.

Visit a sick
relative, friend or an acquaintance that is homebound. Read the Bible, commit
to pray with family and friends this advent season. Pray for Peace. Set up a
Nativity scene in your home. It is a good reminder why we celebrate Christmas.

Send Christmas cards
that have Bible verses and artwork that remind the receiver about the arrival
of Jesus and not Santa Claus. Write Christmas and not X-mas. It would be good if Christian Canadians bought religious postage stamps,
although the tradition of sending Christmas card through mail is slowly dying.
It supports a worthy initiative from Canada Post, one of the few official shows
of Christianity when slowly but surely everything Christian is slowly being
removed, and helps keeps Christ in Christmas. Listen to Christian
music and carols sung by Christian artist. Shop at stores that keep Christ in
Christmas. Look for gifts that support Christian charity.

Volunteer to help the homeless. You can also
plan a project of goodwill to a needy family. Find someone with a genuine need,
involve your whole family and see how happy you can make someone this
Christmas. And
most importantly, we can lift our minds and hearts to Jesus in prayer. Here is
a prayer you could say from your heart.

“The Christmas
prayer” by Robert Louis Stevenson.:

Loving Father, help
us remember the birth of Jesus that we may share in the song of the angels, the
gladness of the shepherds, and worship of the wise men. Close the door of hate
and open the door of love all over the world. Let kindness come with every gift
and good desires with every greeting. Deliver us from evil by the blessing
which Christ brings, and teach us to be merry with clear hearts. May the
Christmas morning make us happy to be Thy Children, and Christmas evening bring
us to our beds with grateful thoughts, forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus’ sake.
Amen.

November 27, 2013

St. Francis Xavier Council 12067 donated $1,200 from the proceeds of their 12th Annual Golfing Tournament to the Silent Children’s Mission charity. The council has been supporting this charity for over 7 years during which time they have donated over $6,000.

On Tuesday, November 19th the
council held it first Fraternal
Activity Night (FAN) in honour of our late CGK Mathew Rodrigues, for the
current fraternal year 2013-14. The evening was preceded by a short general meeting
to pass two important motions, one for making a donation of $2,000 to the St.
Francis Xavier Church and the second $1,000 to the Typhoon Haiyan Fund, to
support the devastation in the Philippines. Both motions were passed
unanimously by the brothers.

The Chair and MC for the evening was Bro.
William Fernandes and he was ably supported by a team of hard working knights,
who assisted all evening and prior to the event-thank you to all the knights
who helped make this FAN night a big success. As well thank you brother knights
for making the time to spend the evening with a fraternal activity, as without
your presence and support the evening would not have been a successful one. The
catering for the evening was undertaken by Konkan Delite which is owned by Bro.
Loy D’Souza who is a member of our council.

Our next FAN night is scheduled for Friday,
January 24th @ 7 p.m. at the Parish Hall and the
Chair for this event is PGK Valens Almeida. This FAN evening will be different
in that we will give the brother knights who have their own businesses the
opportunity to speak in brief and to showcase their business coupled with
games. More to come from the Chair so stay tuned.

Fraternally,

Edwin D'Cruz
Grand Knight and the Executive Team
St. Francis Xavier Council 12067

November 18, 2013

This is an email to remind of the various council
activities for the months of December, 2013 and January, 2014. In this manner,
you can plan your dairy accordingly, and decide which events you are able to
attend and/or support and pencil it in to your diaries.

Parish Feast-St.
Francis Xavier on December 3 Mass and procession at 7 p.m.

Executive and
General Meeting on December 10, 2013 @ 7.30 p.m. Please not that this
will be last meeting of the council for the current year.

November 14, 2013

Further to my email communication sent to you
earlier this evening, this is to formally inform you that at the executive
meeting held on Tuesday, November 12, it was decided that the council should
donate a sum of $1,000
towards the Typhoon Haiyan Fund to support the disaster in the Philippines.

The State Deputy has also informed us today that
donations made through the Supreme website will be eligible to be matched. Thus
our proposed $1,000 will be doubled by passing the donation via Supreme and/or
ShareLife.

Notice is hereby given to you that a formal motion
will be made on Tuesday,
November 19 to donate $1,000 to the Typhoon Haiyan Fund via the
Supreme website. The motion, as is the practice, will need to be seconded by a
knight and subsequently voted upon and approved or declined by the members of
the council.

Fraternally,

Edwin D'Cruz
Grand Knight and the Executive Team
St. Francis Xavier Council 12067

We
are all aware of Typhoon Haiyan wreaking havoc in the Philippines and
Kevin Daudlin, State Deputy has asked that his letter be circulated to all
knights to inform you of Supreme and State actions which have been taken and
how you can assist, or donate generously to the affected people in the
Philippines.

The
council is also making arrangements to donate to the Typhoon Haiyan Fund and in
this regards I will be sending out a notice of motion via an email due to the
urgent nature of the donation to be made.

November 4, 2013

We today concluded our first membership
drive for the new fraternal year in a very satisfactory manner.

The Brother Knights supported the
membership drive by staying after mass and canvassing for new candidates. In
addition, the weekend drive was well attended by knights along with their
families who attended various masses. Thank you brothers!

We had a Knight speaking after each mass
from a prepared script and on behalf of the Membership Director and Fraternal
Benefits Advisor Brother Alan Pires, please accept our grateful thanks for
volunteering to do so and doing a great job of it.

Thank you also to the IPGK and the PGK’s
who provided their full support with their presence and canvassed for
candidates along with the brother knights. Thank you PGK’s!

Our thanks also to Joanita Miranda for her
assistance in coordinating the membership drive event.

Last but not least, thank you to our Pastor
Msgr. Edgardo Pan, Associate Pastors Fr. Susairaj Savarimuthu and Fr. Joshua
Roldan, for their valued support at all the masses and for pitching for the
knights.

Fraternally,

Edwin D'Cruz
Grand Knight and the Executive Team
St. Francis Xavier Council 12067

October 28, 2013

This is a gentle reminder concerning our
forthcoming .General Meeting coupled with a Free Fraternal Activity Night
scheduled for Tuesday, November 19th commencing from 7
p.m.

With the passing of our Charter Grand
Knight Brother Mathew Rodrigues, the fraternal night for will be held in his
memory and to honour him.

We will be praying the Rosary at 7
p.m. followed by the meeting which will be very short (15 mins or so) and
then commence with the fraternal activity night. As informed earlier, food will
be served, courtesy of our Council, and for this purpose we will need brother Knights who will be attending the event to let us know if they will be
attending well in advance of the payment.

The event is being spearheaded by Brother
William Fernandes and his Committee of Brother Knights. You will be contacted
by the committee members by way of the calling tree. However, if you receive
this email, please be kind enough to respond to me with an aye or a nye.

For those brother Knights from our Council
who have a business or work for a business where they would like to promote
themselves, you are welcome to participate in this event. We are planning to
have tables placed around the parish hall where you could place your advertising
material or banner, etc. However, prior to doing so you must clearly let the GK
know about it in writing, well in advance of the event.

Fraternally,

Edwin D'Cruz
Grand Knight and the Executive Team
St. Francis Xavier Council 12067

October 21, 2013

Please
find below a self-explanatory email received from the
Worthy IPGK Joseph Remedios. I would kindly request your support
and mark of utmost respect by participating in the First Degree Exemplification
that is to take place at our parish hall on Sunday, October 27 @ 5.30 p.m.

______________________________

Brothers
of the Degree Team,

Greetings on this Sunday afternoon, I am sure all of you have
received the news of the passing away of our Worthy Past Charter Grand Knight
Brother Mathew Rodrigues, As a token of appreciation for his support
and commitment to our Council we shall dedicate this Degree on Sunday in
his memory, Kindly request the brothers knights from the Council to come and be
part of this Exemplification.

Worthy Grand Knight Brother Edwin, can you kindly send out an email to the
membership for participation.

Thanks you brothers & God Bless,

Joseph Remedios

Grand
Knight-Degree Team

______________________________

Fraternally,

Edwin D'Cruz
Grand Knight and the Executive Team
St. Francis Xavier Council 12067

October 13, 2013

I take this opportunity of wishing each of
and your dear families a very Happy Thanksgiving safe long weekend.

I also take this opportunity to thank the
brother knights who volunteer on various council related projects and for the
many hours that you put in by joining the committees as chairs and members and
for sharing your good ideas and hardwork with the council; my grateful thanks.

For those brother knights that are going
through difficult times (health, job related and other associated matters), our
prayers and thoughts are with the each of you and your dear families.

Last but not least, to my Executive and Directors
Team, thank you for your support dedication to the council and to me, since
taking over as the GK in July of this year.

I am penning this email to let you know (if
you were not able to attend) that our council’s 16th Annual
Anniversary Dinner & Dance held on Saturday, October 5th at
the St. Francis Xavier Parish Hall, was well attended (over 225 attendees),
entertaining the crowd with live music & DJ by the Marawders band, Emceeing
by the affable Melroy Borges and catering by Konkan Delite, who is also a
knight from our council.

The Committee Members & the Executive
Team would like to thank our sponsors, advertisers and those parishioners and
knights that donated gifts to the council to make the evening a successful one
and thus helping us achieve our goals and objectives for this high profile
council event. You will be pleased to know that we raised over $4000 (budget
exceeded by 100 percent).

Brother Savio, Chair for the event and his
fully energised and hard working committee, did an excellent job in ensuring
that the knights and our guests enjoyed the evening. Thank you Chair and
Committee Members for your volunteer work and making sure that everything
turned out well.

October 4, 2013

We finally concluded our
golfing event yesterday afternoon and had a great finish to it, albeit with a
smaller group of ardent golfers and enthusiasts.

Our Chair for this event,
Brother Valens Almeida with his tenacity and never give up attitude, along with
the support of his golfing committee, saw us through the finish line
comfortably.

Despite all the
challenges that this committee has faced weather wise, I am pleased to inform
you that our budget target for this fund raising event coupled with fraternal
activity, has met its goals and objectives. More details of the net funds
raised will be made known to you in the next few weeks.

For those brother knights
who joined us from our council and other supporting councils, a "BIG THANK
YOU" to each of you.

Once again, on behalf of
the Executive Team, our thanks to the Chair Brother Valens Almeida and his
Committee Members for a job well done.